Saudi women between online resistance and new physical realities

What role did collective action, and social media play in Saudi Arabia’s decision to lift its ban on women driving?

Picture of the author taken in 2015 by Lujain Mirza as part of her research project about visual representation of Saudi Women at Brighton University. All rights reserved.On
September 26th 2017, the Saudi Arabian government announced the
suspension of its infamous and much-criticised ban on female drivers.
Unsurprisingly, the news was
welcomed by some and rejected
by others,
although it is hard to get an accurate sense of the reception since
the government routinely
curbs freedom of expression.
Nevertheless, a small minority will undoubtedly be jubilant: since
2011, a movement campaigning for the Saudi women’s right to drive
has haunted the peripheries of national discourse,
occasionally entering mainstream discussion and attracting national
attention. It is interesting, in hindsight, to ask if this collective
action influenced the decision and if, since much of this campaigning
took place via Twitter, this validates optimistic arguments claiming
that online spaces can be origins of real, material change?

Since
their emergence, the information and communication technologies
(ICTs) of the web 2.0 era have radically
altered debates around online protest.
In the early days of web 2.0, many viewed the Internet’s
poly-centric, interactive and trans-nationalist nature as indicative
of a new
era of democracy, interdependence and interconnection,
while others glimpsed darker futures of fragmentation
and terror.
Today, expectations have been moderated accordingly, with Babak
Rahimi
conceptualising
the internet as a shifting mythic realm of constant discursive
conflict. That being said, many still view the Internet as a radical
‘space’ beyond traditional power relations where individuals can
engage in radical reinterpretations of their narratives of self.
Could Saudi Arabia’s recent decision strengthen the case of these
optimistic arguments? Can online activism really bring about change?

Still,
any political protest is risky in Saudi Arabia, and political
discourse by Saudi women is particularly unacceptable, often
entailing fierce punishments. Such extreme conditions ultimately lead
to a unique ‘protest
ecology’
with little resemblance to what many traditionally think of as
‘activism’. For example, external threats mean these anonymous
female activists will likely never meet, and therefore their online
protests seemingly stand little chance of becoming offline actions.
Within such anonymous, scattered resistance, can opportunities for
real psychological resistance still occur?

The
questions I want to raise concern how we think of resistance: are we
unethical if we downplay online resistance, knowing it may play even
a small role in policy change? There are other issues, too: Alexander
Haslam
and
Stephen Reicher’s suggest
asocial
identity
model
of resistance
dynamics arguing
that a fixation with the processes of oppression can lead to a
conception of “domination,
tyranny, and abuse as natural or inevitable”.
They characterise the oppressed as inevitable victims, leading to a
reduced belief in the possible agency of the disadvantaged. Instead,
we must be creative in seeking out resistances where we can.

In
order to ease the identification of resistance, Haslam
and Reicher propose a three-stage model that emphasises the
importance of collective identity to the processes of resistance, and
highlights oppression itself can often lead to the creation of
shared identities that can help the disadvantaged endure their
oppression. The act of identity creation itself thus needs to be
re-characterised as an extremely active act - the first stage in a
process of psychological resistance. Once this shared identity is
established, a group can more effectively stabilise or destabilise
intergroup inequality through the creation of cognitive alternatives
(or shared visions of alternative ways of being), which are
reinforced through sharing.

Of
course, if there is one thing we can unequivocally say about Twitter,
it is this: it allows one to see others like oneself, and thus to
form an in-group (however loosely), which in turn leads to the
creation of cognitive alternatives. Once a group identity and
cognitive alternative is formed, support can be sought from third
parties: thus such cognitive fantasies can spread, new ideas of being
travel through a global communications networks.

In an environment like Saudi Arabia, protest will begin online, hidden and anonymous

On
a final hopeful note, in an environment like Saudi Arabia, protest
will begin online, hidden and anonymous. I hope that the Saudi
decision will show that such activism can be consequential too.
Moreover, this shows that we need to champion these beginnings,
these early stages of internal resistances. Glimpsing
these beginnings, we must not be disheartened by their
clandestine, anonymous, restricted and underground nature. The
decision to allow Saudi women to drive shows that through the
creation of group identities and cognitive alternatives such hidden
online spaces may produce new physical realities.

About the author

Heyla
Selim holds
a doctorate
degree from the School of psychology at the University of Sussex in the United
Kingdom. Her PhD thesis titled: “Why the caged bird sings: an
investigation of cultural influence on online behaviour in Saudi
Arabia and the United Kingdom”. She is an assistant professor at the Psychology
Department at King Saud University in Ryadh since July 2008.

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